Excel Dashboards and Reports for Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 10

Macro-Charged Dashboarding

In This Chapter

Introducing macros

Recording macros

Setting up trusted locations for your macros

Adding macros to your dashboards and reports

A macro is essentially a set of instructions or code that you create to tell Excel to execute any number of actions. In Excel, macros can be written or recorded. The key word here is recorded.

Recording a macro is like programming a phone number into your cellphone. You first manually dial and save a number. Then when you want, you can redial those numbers with the touch of a button. Just as on a cellphone, you can record your actions in Excel while you perform them. While you record, Excel gets busy in the background, translating your keystrokes and mouse clicks to written code, also known as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). After you record a macro, you can play back those actions anytime you want.

In this chapter, you explore macros and see how you can use them to automate recurring processes to simplify your life.

Why Use a Macro?

The first step in using macros is admitting you have a problem. ...